1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a phase shifter, and more particularly to an innovative one which is fitted with a plurality of electric regulation units configured reversely.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98.
With sharply increasing end users of mobile communication systems, especially in metropolitan areas where the consumer distribution is dense and time-dependently changing, many base stations are in full-load state. For instance, in the industrial and commercial regions, the distribution of mobile phones and PDAs varies markedly with the changing commuter time or holidays, so the load of the base stations covering these regions fluctuate obviously, leading to lower availability, degraded communication quality and waste of resources.
For the aforementioned problems and demands, an electric regulation antenna is extensively applied to the communication base stations in lieu of a common antenna. Said electric regulation antenna allows for regulation of the radiation angle of the antenna depending on the coverage, traffic and disturbance, etc, of the mobile network, thereby optimizing the communication network and QoS and improving the availability of resources.
Of which, the core component of said electric regulation antenna is a phase shifter involved in the present invention. However, the structure of the common phase shifter has some problems and shortcomings, such as for the phase shifter with a regulator that is formed by sleeving the coaxial tube with the transmission line (e.g.: U.S. Pat. No. 2,502,359), the bigger size leads to increasing cross section of the phase shifter, thus resulting in bigger space, inconvenient assembly and higher manufacturing cost, etc.
Moreover, another shortcoming of the common phase shifter lies in the configuration of the electric regulation units, where the shift of a plurality of electric regulation units is generally driven by a single push-pull unit, but the electric regulation efficiency is insufficient. Besides, the electric regulation efficiency is generally increased by connecting the multiple phase shifters in series, leading to substantial volume increase of the phase shifter and making it more difficult to improve the mating and functioning accuracy of components.
Thus, to overcome the aforementioned problems of the prior art, it would be an advancement if the art to provide an improved structure that can significantly improve the efficacy.
Therefore, the inventor has provided the present invention of practicability after deliberate experimentation and evaluation based on years of experience in the production, development and design of related products.